Pasty Festival and finial days in the UP

We went to a Pasty Fest with fellow blogger Bob and Jo that we met at Houghton City RV Park.  The festival was held in the town of Calumet. Now I know some one out there is asking, what are pasties?
Here is the story

There was a small parade to start the festival.

The Copperdogs are sled dogs. In the area they have a number of dog sled races. These dogs are some  huskies, don't want to miss quote their name. See the blue eyes .

Pasties being brought in for judging for the best of the Fest.

Calumet is a neat old town. We took a walk around town to see some of the old building.

 Bob and Jo are pasty experts and know were the good ones are sold in the area. So we went to Roy's for our first pasty. Bob and I had a "traditional" which was made with rutabaga, pork, beef, onion and seasonings. Linda and JO  had a chicken cheese and broccoli.  They were very good. We took two frozen ones home with us. Linda a cheese, chicken  and broccoli and I got a turkey dinner, which is turkey, cranberries, potatoes and seasonings. The pasties were the end of a good day. 
    This is our finial post from the Upper peninsula of Michigan. We have spent a lot of time in MI and really enjoyed the Upper Peninsula.  I,  Bob learned to enjoy fresh asparagus purchased from local farmers markets. This is a first for Bob. Another first was pasties made with rutabaga. These were great, but I didn't care to much for the smoked fish chowder. It was ok, but I'll pass on it in the future.
     We do hope to return in the future. We really liked the Houghton  area. The city park was a super spot to spend a month or two, but don't tell anyone. The park only has 22 sites.
     Since we left Michigan  we only spent one night in Wisconsin  and about a week in Minnesota  and are now in North Dakota . We are just a mile from Theodor Roosevelt National Park. We do have a number of blogs to catch up with. We are touring and traveling faster them we are blogging. But we will keep posting. I admire fellow bloggers that find time almost every day to post. We have 3 or 4 stops planned for Montana and then onto Washington were we plan on spending at least a month touring the state.    
   Thanks for following along, and be patient, we will some day get caught up.








    

Mineral Museum of Michigan

The Mineral Museum of Michigan is a must do if in the area of Houghton MI. Also know as the A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum,  housed at Michigan Technological University. We spent about 5 hours just looking in amazement at all the different minerals and reading all the little labels. Hunger finally caused us(Bob) to leave. The usual coast is $6. for 2 days (you need 2 days), but there is a summer special, just $3. for one day. We went on a Tuesday and found it was free admission. It is worth every penny to tour this museum. Note I said penny, made of copper. There was a copper boom on the Keweenaw Peninsular that started in the 1860's and lasted to 1996. There are many samples of copper oar at the museum.
Here are just a few sample of copper oar

Linda took over 400 photo's, and here are just a few

The large collection of fluorescent minerals was amazing. The bottom right photo is the same as the one above it. The glow of the minerals is due to the ultra violet light.

We really enjoyed this museum and do  recommend it to anyone spending time in the area.
Thanks for following along

Quincy Mine tour

The Quincy mine tour, museum and tram ride is an interesting history tour of copper mining on Keweenaw Peninsula. The Copper Rush started about 6 years before the California gold Rush. The Quincy mine started in 1848. The Steam Hoist is the largest in the world. It transported men into the mine and copper oar out. Most of the mine is owned and operated by the Quincy Mine Association. Just looking around you can see a need for funding the upkeep of the artifacts.

Bob is smiling and enjoying the day, but

that doesn't look like a happy face. I guess the hard hat is messing her hair.

The tram ride to the opening into the mine. The only cog-rail tram in the Midwest. A Little steep

A good view of the lift bridge between Houghton and Hancock.

The red item is a lift that takes the men into and out of the mine. The mine is 9,260 feet deep.

The cable drum of the steam hoist, check out the size

Needs restoring, at least  under cover. With up to 300 inch's of snow a year, it could use a covered roof

See how the weather is taking it's toll. The wooden parts are  falling apart, and the top of the coal tender is rusted away.

Wow.

Portage Lift Bridge and the Ranger 3

The Portage Lake Lift Bridge is the largest double deck bridge in the country.  It is the only road to Hancock. The upper Keweenaw Peninsula is an island. The bridge joins the cities of Hancock and Houghton. It was built in 1959.

The bridge going up

The Range 111 going under the bridge

The bridge down

The Ranger 3 is the largest boat in the National Park fleet. This ship takes passengers to Isle Royale National Park, about a 5 hour trip. It goes over one day and returns the next, twice a week. This was taken from our site.

Turing around to dock.

Docked, about a half mile from the RV Park.

Houghton City Park

Houghton City Park is a small RV park with just 22 sites. All but 5 sites back up to the Portage Lake Canal. The sites and roads are paved. All sites are full hook up with 50 amp electric.  Most are fairly level. Each site have a covered picnic table, wood bench and fire ring.  The first 10 sites have some shrubs'/small trees between them.  There is cable TV with about 50-60 channels. You have all this for $30. a night, $200. a week. Our Verizon cell phone had 3-4 bars. Wifi in the park went from fair to good to excellent. Not sure why it varied.

From across the lake looking at our RV, zoomed in.

Looking out our back window

A double wide paved site. Big rig friendly

All these were taken from our site. A different color sunset every night.

Copper Harbor back to Houghton

  After leaving Copper Harbor we took a different route back to Houghton to see the other side of the Peninsula.
Another lighthouse, this one is Mendota. There are a large number of lighthouse around the great lake.

Along the east shore

The town of Guy

Along the road through the towns of Lake Linden and Hubbel.

This dredge reminded us of the few dredges similar to this one that we saw in Alaska.

A different car lot.

On the way out and back along the peninsula we can across several water falls.

We also saw many wildflowers

More to come from the area. Thanks for following along.